NFL: average TV audience down 8% year-on-year for regular season games, 8 of 10 playoff games down

The TV audiences of the NFL during the 17 weeks of the regular season were down 8% in 2016 compared to 2015, or 16.5 million viewers on average per nationally televised game in 2016, compared to 17.9 million in 2015, according to the American sports media outlet ESPN on 05/01/2017. This drop of 1.4 million viewers on average per game over one season is the worst decline in a decade, according to ESPN.

Additionally, eight of the 10 games of the NFL Playoffs (played in January 2017) have seen their TV audience decline compared to the previous year, including the AFC Conference Final, according to the audience measurement group Nielsen (see below).

The largest audience declines, in the regular season, from 2015 to 2016 - over 10% - were recorded in the prime time national television slots of the pay-TV ESPN and and the free-TV NBC (see below).

Super Bowl 51, New England Patriots (AFC champions) versus the Atlanta Falcons (NFC Champions), will be played at NRG Stadium in Houston (Texas, USA), on Sunday, 05/02/2017, kick-off at 18:30 US east coast time, (00:30 CET, 06/02/2017).

AFC and NFC…